High heel were worn for centuries throughout in the near East as a form of riding footwear said Elizabeth Semmelhack of Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. Good horsemanship was essential to the fighting styles of Persia’s historical name for modern Iran. When soldiers stood up in stirrups heels helped him to secure his stance to shoot his bow and arrow effectively. At the end of the 16th Century, Persia’s Shah Abbas I had largest cavalry in the world. He was keen to forge links with rulers in Western Europe to help him defeat the enemy Ottoman Empire.
Image caption men’s 17th Century Persian shoe, covered in shagreen horse hide with the pressed mustard seeds. In 1599, Abbas sent first Persian diplomatic mission to Europe called on courts of Russia, Germany and Spain. So wave of interest in all things Persian passed through Western Europe. Persian style shoes enthusiastically adopted by aristocrats, who sought to give their appearance a virile, masculine edge, it suddenly seemed heeled shoes best be supplied to them.
Image caption of Louis XIV wearing a trademark heels in a 1701 in portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud. The wearing of heels filtered into lower ranks of society, aristocracy responded by dramatically increasing the height of their shoes and the high heel was born. In muddy, rutted streets of 17th Century Europe, new shoes had no utility value whatsoever as that was the whole point. One of the best ways a person’s status was conveyed is through impracticality stated by Semmelhack. It added upper class, impractical, uncomfortable and luxurious clothing to announce a privileged status. “They are not in fields working so do not have to walk far”as was stated in the research. 
In the history of most notable shoe collectors its Imelda Marcos of this day that is like Louis XIV of France. As a great king, diminutive proportion of 5ft 4in (1.63m) supplemented his stature by a further 4in (10cm) with heels; often elaborately decorated by depictions of battle scenes. The heels and soles were always red and the dyes expensive carried martial overtone. The fashion soon spread overseas so Charles II of England’s coronation portrait of 1661 features him wearing a pair of enormous red, French style heels, although he was over 6ft or (1.85m). In 1670s, Louis XIV issued edict only members of his court were allowed to wear red heels. And in French society to check if someone had favour with the king was by glancing downwards to see their shoes. The popular saying is if you want to know what a person constitues just look at their shoes because shoes tells a lot about people. In practice, unauthorised, imitation heels made it possible to copy all fashion styles by all classes.
Although Europeans were first attracted to heels because Persian connection gave them macho air craze women’s fashion adopted elements of men’s dress. It meant their use spread to women and children. “In 1630s women started cutting their hair and adding epaulettes to outfits,” says Semmelhack. They smoked pipes and wore hats copying masculine styles adopted heels. It was in an effort to masculinise their outfits. Europe’s upper classes followed the unisex shoe fashion until end of the 17th Century, when things began to change again. “You start seeing the change in heels at this point,” says Helen Persson, curator at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “Men started to use squarer, more robust, lower stack heels, women’s heels more slender, curvaceous.”
The toes of women’s shoes were often tapered so tips appeared from the skirts wearer’s feet as small and dainty. Fast forward a few more years intellectual movement of Enlightenment brought with it new respect for rational and usefulness with emphasis on education not privilege. Men’s fashion shifted towards more practical clothing. In England, aristocrats began to wear simplified clothes linked to their work managing country estates. It was the beginning of the Great Male Renunciation men abandon wearing of jewellery, bright colours and ostentatious fabrics in favour of dark, more sober, homogeneous look. Men’s clothing no longer operated as signifier of social class, boundaries being blurred. The differences between gender or sexes became androgenous and more pronounced. Continue in conversation like men are from Mars and women from Venus. In real life history of Kinky Boots, men reclaimed high heels by creating the new fashion high heel boot to adapt. So it saved and restored the good success of a company struggling about fold up.
“It begun discussion about how men, regardless of station, birth and education became citizens,” says Semmelhack. “The women in contrast were seen as emotional, sentimental or uneducatable female desirability was constructed in terms of irrational fashion. The high heel once separated them from original function of horseback riding became primary example of impractical dress.” High heels were seen as foolish, effeminate in 1740 men stopped wearing them altogether. It took 50 years to disappear from women’s feet, falling out of favour after French Revolution. By the time heels came back into fashion mid-19th century, photography transform fashions and so the female self-image was reconstructed.
Photographers were among the first to embrace the new technology by taking pictures of naked women used for dirty postcards position models in poses resembling classical nude but let them wear modern-day high heels. Semmelhack, the author of ‘Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe,’ on association with pornography led to high heels seen as erotic adornment for women. Image caption of men in high heels at gay pride party in Spain in 2005. The 1960s saw return of low heeled cowboy boots for men and some dandies strutted stuff in platform shoes in 1970s. The era of men walking on toes seems to be behind us. Can society ever return to era of guys squeezing big hairy feet into 4inch, shiny, brightly coloured high heels? “Absolutely,” says Semmelhack. There is no reason, she believes, why high heel can’t continue to be ascribed new meaning may wait for true gender equality first. “If its signifier of actual power then men will be as willing to wear it as women.”
Exodus 3:5 God said, “Do not come near remove your sandals from your feet the place you stand is holy ground.”
Luke 10:4 Take no money belt, bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.
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